Chapter 18 - Pulmonary Imaging Using 19F MRI of Inert Fluorinated Gases

Abstract

Pulmonary fluorine-19 (19F) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) using inhaled inert fluorinated gases is a technique that can provide high quality structural and functional images of the lungs. Inert fluorinated gas MRI has a number of potential advantages, as the fluorinated gases are nontoxic, abundant, relatively inexpensive, and the technique can be performed on any MRI scanner with broadband imaging capabilities. Pulmonary 19F MRI has been previously demonstrated in animals, healthy human volunteers, and patients with lung diseases. The ongoing improvements in image quality demonstrate the potential of 19F MRI for visualizing ventilation in human lungs and detecting functional biomarkers of disease. In this chapter, the development of inert fluorinated gas MRI, current progress in animal and human imaging, and the future prospects of this technique are discussed. Overall, inert fluorinated gas MRI has the potential to be clinically adopted as an inexpensive pulmonary imaging modality that can aid in disease diagnosis.